It’s Recipe Testing Time! A dinner party where everyone else does the cooking.
It's the season for recipe testing for my Passover cookbook, and as I did with my first cookbook (A Fistful of Lentils) I have decided to distribute various recipes to friends, acquaintances, family members, and willing participants to see how ...
Last Search for Chametz: Feather, Wooden Spoon, or Knife?
As the first Seder approaches tomorrow night at sundown, it is the tradition in many homes to follow the ritual of b'dikat chametz (Hebrew for, "search for chametz") to find and discard those very last crumbs considered forbidden during Passover ...
Lenore’s Pre-Passover Seder on St. Patty’s Day: Four leaf clovers instead of parsley?
Passover orders are rolling in and I wonder (as I do every year) how I will manage to do all of the shopping and cooking for just two big days. I have already started to prepare some things for my ...
Little Georgia at the Crossroads of Rego Park and Forest Hills, Queens
This past April it dawned on me that I hadn't even thought of creating a chapter on Georgian Jews for my Passover cookbook. Why? For some reason I thought that both historically and culturally Georgia would be more like Eastern Europe, ...
Matzolah and Gefilte Fish Gummies?
I know that none of these Passover-friendly products are traditional in any way, much less Sephardic, but in the weeks leading up to Passover I thought it an interesting thing to point out since it shows how popular and commercially ...
Minas, Meginas, and Maienas: The Quintessential Sephardic Dish?
Through my Passover research I came across the concept of a layered matzah pie that is very popular in the Sephardic communities of Turkey and parts of Greece, but not something that I was not at all familiar with in ...
Minestra Dayenu: It should have been enough.
When I first read about this traditional Italian Passover soup it was really the name that captured my attention. (What a great name!) It conveyed that it was both a filling Italian soup, as well as one sufficient for Passover ...
My Passover blog is finally up and running!
I have to be honest and say that for a full two years I have been wanting to write a blog that had something to do with my love for food. But what specifically? Every day on my to-do list ...
My Roadtrip to Regostan, Queens
One sunny Sunday morning in late August, I ventured out to Queens to meet Amnun Kimyagarov, the author of "Classic Central Asian (Bukharian) Jewish Cuisine and Customs." (I learned about this book from a woman named Dahlia who I had ...
Now that Passover has Passed Over…
Other than Chanukah, Passover is without a doubt the busiest time of year for me professionally. During the month and a half leading up to this year's holiday life was good and busy. I taught several Passover cooking classes in ...
OUT with the OLD and in with the NEW: Time to throw out the old spices!
My students often ask me, "How long can I keep my spices?" This is a hard question to answer as throwing out your spices on a regular basis to replace with fresh ones can be very expensive. But one thing ...
Passover Cooking in December: Finding time to write and test the recipes.
As I complete the interview portion of my cookbook (with a total of nearly 85 interviews of individuals from 18 different countries!), I look forward to the next phase of finalizing the menu for each chapter/community, and then completing the ...
Passover images from around the world: Charoset Ice Cream in Israel
Photo by Alan Caplan: "Ben & Jerry's Charoset Ice Cream," Israel ...
Passover images from around the world: Dutch Matze
My friend Sarah Abrams just returned from a trip to Holland and sent me this photo of matze in the supermarket. The packaging differs from our square boxes here in the U.S., and the matzahs there are round and appear much ...
Purim is over and the countdown has begun: Time to start that spring cleaning!
Now that Purim has ended the official countdown to Passover has begun folks! This is the time when many Jews begin the step-by-step process of cleaning their house, or apartment (or even office) from top to bottom. Some might take ...
Round vs. Square: How do you take your matzah?
An interesting article was written Passover week in The New Yorker about Manischewitz and how they turned commercially made matzah into such a successful business year-round. One of the secrets? Turning the usual handmade circular matzah into a square! Read ...
Seder Plate Checklist: Are you set?
Below is a list of all the necessary Seder foods, along with the variety of ingredients that individuals from all over the Middle East, Mediterranean, Central Asia, and parts of Africa have used on their Seder table: Zâroah (sacrificial lamb): ...
